DL Streaming 101: Week 9
Professor IDP looks at the best DE and DT streaming options in your IDP fantasy football leagues for Week 9.
Welcome to the Week 9 edition of DL Streaming 101!
We made it through the SuperBye and return closer to full strength this week but will be missing some key studs and streamers heading into Week 9.
Despite limited options due to 6 teams on bye, I was able to average above 10 Big 3 points per game (11.4) for the second straight week and bumped the season-long average just above the ever-important 10 PPG threshold!
Overall, streaming has now had a 43.4% success rate (streamers scoring over 10 pts) with 12.5% boom games (over 20 pts), and only 5.3% who would have left you with a 0 for the week. To put these numbers into perspective, the top 50 scoring DL in 2025 have played a total of 420 games with the following breakdown:
Success Rate = 48.3%
Boom Rate = 20.9%
Bust Rate = 1.9%
Given that I do not have a preseason crystal ball and many of the players in the top 50 were highly drafted, having a success rate within 5% and a bust rate within 3.5% of this ideal group using only ‘free’ players feels pretty validating to me!
But enough looking back, let’s look forward to a new slate of names for Week 9. This week, I focus on four players making their first 2025 appearance in this article and two whose ceilings are higher than past streaming performances might indicate.
Featured DL Streamers
Jalen Redmond, DT, MIN (🎓🎓🎓🎓)
Jalen Redmond put up a respectable eight fantasy points as a streaming option last week, and his ceiling is even higher in Week 9.
The primary reasons for Redmond’s ascendency this week are twofold. First, he played a season-high 86% of snaps last week. Sometimes players will have snap share spikes due to low total count, but that was not the case here, as he also played a season-high 63 snaps in Week 8. With that many snaps, an eight-point fantasy performance is disappointing and might suggest moving him down. However, the fantasy line doesn’t show his season-high 90.3 PFF pass rush grade or his nine pressures. The arrow is currently way up for Redmond.
Al-Quadin Muhammad, DE, DET (🎓🎓🎓)
Before the Lions had their bye week, Al-Quadin Muhammad looked to be shaping up as the desperately needed number two option in Detroit beyond Aiden Hutchinson. To put it plainly, the pass rushing cupboards are incredibly bare in Detroit, and Muhammad is likely the next best available option.
While being the next best available option on a team with Hutchinson might already be a positive sign, it is Muhammad’s matchup that lands him so highly on the DL streaming list this week. The Vikings have been an opportunity for opposing edges to feast this season (regardless of who lines up at QB). They average a league-high 46.81 fantasy points per game to opposing edges, allowing many non-household names to score 10+ or even 20+ points in a single game.
Muhammad has a great chance to be the next Zach Harrison (24.3 in Week 2 against McCarthy) or Alex Wright (21.8 more recently in Week 5) and warrants strong streaming consideration.
Nathan Shepherd, DT, NOS (🎓🎓🎓)
Nathan Shephard was a streaming recommendation in Week 5 that did not pan out (4 points). Since then, he has put up games of 9.25, 2, and 13.55, suggesting a low floor, moderate ceiling profile.
My optimism for Shephard this week is primarily driven by his usage, as he has played at least 70% of snaps since Week 4, playing a season-high 81% in Week 8. When looking to stream, you could do much worse than a high-snap player with serviceable PFF grades, and a slightly advantageous matchup (the Rams give up the 9th most fantasy points to opposing interior defenders).
Jonah Laulu, DT, LV (🎓🎓🎓)
I am admittedly a little late to the Jonah Laulu party, as I have been a bigger fan of teammate Adam Butler (and his metrics) for some time. With Butler dealing with a back injury, the door is now open for more opportunities to learn about Laulu.
Laulu was picked up prematurely in many leagues after posting sacks in Weeks 1 and 2, despite only generating three pressures over that time. Fast-forward to Weeks 3-7 where he only had one more sack and 10 more pressures and it is not hard to see why he was abandoned in all but the deepest leagues. Coming back from the Raiders’ bye week, Laulu enters the streaming conversation primarily on the strength of his snaps as well as one counterintuitive marker: a 38.0 run defense grade (184th among 204 DT this season).
Like CB where poor play can lead to fantasy production, teams target poor run defenders, creating tackle opportunities. Two of the top five interior defensive linemen in tackles thus far in 2025 have sub-50 run defense grades. This may be an opportunity to target particularly bad play in the hopes that it builds a more stable floor, given Laulu has demonstrated some pass rush upside.
David Onyemata, DT, ATL (🎓🎓)
Longtime readers know that I have long had a soft spot for David Onyemata as one of the more underrated defensive tackles in the NFL since his time in New Orleans. Now a member of the Atlanta Falcons, the man whose nickname is “Cinderella” may be about to have his time at the ball.
Onyemata ranks in the top 20 among interior defenders in tackles with 23 this season and has a solid 71.6 PFF pass rush grade to increase his ceiling. The Falcons take on the Patriots this week in a rematch of Super Bowl LI and allow the 8th most fantasy points to opposing defensive tackles. The weakness of the Patriots’ line is the interior, where the center and guards average a PFF grade of just over 60 and the run blocking grades are significantly lower. All of this suggests Onyemata may have a nice floor as a Week 9 streamer.
James Pearce Jr., DE, ATL (🎓🎓)
It is that time of the year when we start to see rookies get more run, and Onyemata’s teammate James Pearce Jr. appears primed to take advantage. With fellow rookie Jalon Walker potentially returning from injury this week, Pearce is a risky play but one that has shown enough upside to warrant streaming consideration.
Pearce is second among the Falcons’ edges in pass rush snaps and pressures, despite only starting in one game this season (last week against the Dolphins). Atlanta draws a favorable fantasy matchup for edges this week as the New England Patriots allow the fourth most fantasy points to the position in the NFL this season (39.5 per game). A talented rookie against a team that gives up fantasy points is typically a winning combination, but Pearce’s snap uncertainty makes him a riskier streamer than others this week.
If you enjoy this series, please consider filling out the 2025 State of IDP survey here. This year’s survey is a new, shorter format that you only need to fill out once (goodbye, one survey per league!) and contains only five questions. It is the data we received from past surveys that has partially helped to shape this article from DT streaming to DL streaming (given how many leagues use DL vs separate DT and DE).
Good luck, and if you have any questions about deep DL plays, my office is always open on Twitter (@ProfessorIDP).
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